Sports

Coaching for Canada 'with pride'

Brantford's Claire Meadows, shown coaching her UBC Okanagan Heat women's basketball team, will be a coach for Canada's national basketball team that will play at the FIBA Under-19 Women's Basketball World Cup in Italy later this month. (Submitted Photo)

Later this month, Meadows, 33, who joined the official coaching ranks about five years ago, will be an assistant coach with Canada's under-19 team at the Women's Basketball World Cup, July 22-30, in Italy.

"I get to put Canada across my chest, represent my country and do it with pride," said Meadows, a North Park Collegiate graduate.

"That's an experience that not a lot of people can say they've had or will get,"

Meadows has come a long way in a short time.

During her five-year playing career at Kingston's Queen's University, Meadows was a first- and second-team OUA all-star while also acting as team captain. A shooting guard, Meadows was second all-time in scoring for the Golden Gaels when her university career came to an end.

Holding degrees in phys education, environmental science and education, Meadows started her professional life as a high school teacher, helping coach at her alma mater. But following a conversation with her Dave Wilson, her coach at Queen's, she made a decision to switch course.

"We had a pretty lengthy conversation about what I wanted to do and what career path I wanted to go down," she said. "That's when I decided, if I was going to try coaching, I was going to do it (then)."

Eventually, Meadows earned a masters in education from the University of Victoria and completed a coaching practicum at the University of Alberta.

The lead assistant at Alberta, Erin McAleenan, got the head coaching job at the University of Lethbridge in 2012 and Meadows followed as full-time assistant coach.

"It really was a great hands on experience in the sense that I worked really closely with Erin," Meadows said of the time she spent at Lethbridge, from 2012 to 2015.

"I had a lot of responsibilities when I was there," she said.

"After my third year at Lethbridge, I felt that I was ready to move on to a head coaching position. The tricky thing in my profession is there are only so many jobs that become available."

Meadows was successful in her first attempt at applying for a head coaching job when an opening came up at the University of British Columbia Okanagan.

She said she felt "ecstatic" to get the job.

"I really felt honoured and proud. I'd put in a lot of time in terms of schooling, moving across the country and sacrificing a lot.

"It was a pretty special day for me to be able to call my family and tell them I was going to be a head coach."

UBC Okanagan is a satellite campus of the university. A little more than five years ago, it successfully applied for U Sports eligibility.

In her first season as head coach, the team went 10-10 -- the best record in school history. With a difficult scheduled, the team wasn't as successful last season.

"In terms of direction, rebuilding and where I want the program to go, we've had a couple of good years in terms of recruitment," Meadows said.

"I look at it as a five-year process and I'm going into my third season of that five-year process. We're starting to see all the pieces coming together."

Meadows, who thanks her parents, Deb and Paul, for their support, was an assistant coach last year for the under-18 team that won silver at the FIBA Americas in Chile.

"I want to stay in the program," she said. "I'm a relatively young coach and this is a huge learning opportunity.

"The environment I'm in is motivating. It's inspiring.

"If I can do this for 10 to 15 more years, then I'll take every opportunity to be able to do it."